Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

TRAC Co-Founder’s Groundbreaking Investigative Books Now Available Digitally

Wednesday, January 14, 2015, By Greg Munno
Share
TRAC

More than three decades ago, Random House published “The Rise of the Computer State,” David Burnham’s prescient book that predicted how computers would soon dominate politics, economics, law enforcement and the basic thinking of the American people. Long before the revelations of Edward Snowden, the book included a chapter on the National Security Agency that Burnham described as “the ultimate computer bureaucracy.”

The cover of David Burnham's book, "The Rise of the Computer State"

The cover of David Burnham’s book, “The Rise of the Computer State”

This groundbreaking book, and two others by Burnham, have now been released in digital versions, and are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well in Apple’s ibookstore, on Google Play and on Kobo Books. Print-on-demand versions will be available starting April 7.

Burnham is the co-founder and co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research professor at the Newhouse School and a former investigative reporter with The New York Times who served on President Lyndon Johnson’s Crime Commission.

All three books received excellent reviews when first published. The Washington Post said that in “The Rise of the Computer State,” Burnham had applied his reportorial skills “to produce a perceptive examination of the machine that is more than any other changing the nature of the world in which we live, moving us with breathtaking speed in unpredictable and not always beneficial directions.”

The book was written as a warning about the dangers of computers to privacy and freedom, as well as a call for enhanced oversight. Because this call has been largely ignored, the book still serves as a rallying cry as well as a sad history.

Burnham’s two other books now available digitally are his detailed 1991 expose of the Internal Revenue Service, “A Law Unto Itself: Power, Politics and the IRS,” and his 1996 book, “Above the Law,” which explores the “secret deals, political fixes and other misadventures” of the Justice Department.

For the IRS book, Burnham used data furnished to him by Susan Long, who had collected voluminous records on the IRS as part of her research and as a result of a lengthy Freedom of Information struggle with the agency. It was the beginning of the relationship that would lead Long, a professor of managerial statistics at the Whitman School, and Burnham to co-found TRAC more than 25 years ago.

  • Author

Greg Munno

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Ranked in the Top 25 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs by U.S. News & World Report
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • WAER 88.3 FM Welcomes New Sports Director
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By Mary Kate Intaglietta
  • The State of the Immigration Courts
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Athlete, Activist Maya Moore Joins the Martin Luther King Jr. Virtual Event Series Jan. 27
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Health Promotion Advocate and Alumnus Sidney Lerner ’53 Remembered
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

WAER 88.3 FM Welcomes New Sports Director

WAER 88.3 FM has announced that Jaron May, a junior broadcast and digital journalism major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, is the station’s incoming sports director. “We’re excited to have Jaron leading the WAER sports department in…

Athlete, Activist Maya Moore Joins the Martin Luther King Jr. Virtual Event Series Jan. 27

The Syracuse University Department of Athletics and Hendricks Chapel will present a virtual conversation with athlete and activist Maya Moore on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. ET on Zoom. Registration is free and open to all at mlk.syr.edu. A…

Spring 2021 Office of Research Events Focus on Research Success

More than 14 events focused on research success will be offered by the Office of Research during the Spring 2021 semester, with more in the planning stages. In collaboration with multiple entities across campus, the office is working to provide…

Syracuse University Names Four as ‘Unsung Heroes’ in Honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The 36th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee has announced the 2021 Unsung Hero Award winners. The Unsung Hero awards are given to community members, students, faculty and staff who have made positive impacts on the lives…

COVID-19 Update: Answering Your Frequently Asked Questions

Dear Students, Faculty, Staff and Families: Over the last several weeks, the University has provided a lot of information about return to campus, including related to move-in, testing, quarantining, campus life, etc. We recognize that all this information can be…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.